System and method for dual-control signaling for the relay scenarios

ABSTRACT

An origination device transmits a “received data signal” to a signal forwarding device. The “received data signal” comprises a first set of data. The origination device also transmits at least one “received control signal” to the signal forwarding device and to a destination device. The at least one “received control signal” comprises a first set of control information and a second set of control information. The first and second sets of control information are both associated with the first set of data. The first set of control information contains instructions pertaining to the signal forwarding device processing the first set of data. The second set of control information contains instructions pertaining to the destination device processing the first set of data. The signal forwarding device transmits a “forwarded signal” to the destination device. The “forwarded signal” contains forwarded data, based on the first set of data.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

The present application claims priority to Provisional Application No.62/302,657, entitled “CONTROL SIGNALING FOR THE RELAY SCENARIOS,” filedMar. 2, 2016, and to Provisional Application No. 62/304,738, entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DUAL-CONTROL SIGNALING FOR THE RELAY SCENARIOS,”filed Mar. 7, 2016, both assigned to the assignee hereof and both herebyexpressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

This invention generally relates to wireless communications and moreparticularly to providing control information to a signal forwardingdevice and to a destination device.

BACKGROUND

Some communication systems utilize a signal forwarding device, such as arepeater station, relay station or a self-backhauled station tofacilitate the transfer of information between user equipment (UE)devices and a core network. The signal forwarding device is typicallynot connected directly to the core network but still provides service tothe UE devices by forwarding information to and from the UE devices anda base station, which is connected to the core network. Where the signalforwarding device is a repeater, the repeater simply retransmitsdownlink signals received from another base station to the UE device andretransmits uplink signals received from the UE device to the other basestation. Although the repeater may apply limited signal processing tothe incoming signal such as filtering, frequency shifting, andamplification, a repeater will not decode the incoming signal that is tobe forwarded. Relay stations and self-backhaul stations perform at leastsome signal processing before retransmitting the information. Suchprocessing can vary from partial decoding to complete decoding of theincoming signal. For example, the incoming signal can be completelydecoded and used to generate a new signal or the incoming signal may notbe completely decoded but still used to transmit the forwarded outgoingsignal. Some of the various levels of processing (forwarding techniques)are sometimes referred to as amplify and forward (AF), partial decodingand forward (PDF), and decode and forward (DF) schemes.

SUMMARY

An origination device transmits a “received data signal” to a signalforwarding device. The “received data signal” comprises a first set ofdata. The origination device also transmits at least one “receivedcontrol signal” to the signal forwarding device and to a destinationdevice. The at least one “received control signal” comprises a first setof control information and a second set of control information. Thefirst and second sets of control information are both associated withthe first set of data. The first set of control information containsinstructions pertaining to the signal forwarding device processing thefirst set of data. The second set of control information containsinstructions pertaining to the destination device processing the firstset of data. The signal forwarding device transmits a “forwarded signal”to the destination device. The “forwarded signal” contains forwardeddata, based on the first set of data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a wireless communicationsystem including an origination device, a signal forwarding device, anda destination device.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an example of a method of utilizing thewireless communication system of FIG. 1 to provide control informationto a signal forwarding device and to a destination device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, communication systems often employ repeaters, relaysand self-backhauled base stations to forward signals transmitted betweenbase stations and the UE devices served by the base stations. Signalsmay be forwarded from the base station to the UE device, from the UEdevice to the base station, or both. In some systems, scheduling ofcommunication resources for the communication channel between the signalforwarding device (e.g., repeater, relay, etc.) and the UE device isperformed by a scheduler at the base station or a central schedulerconnected to the base station. In the examples discussed herein, it isassumed that the scheduler is located at, or connected to, a basestation to/from which the signal forwarding device forwards signals.However, the scheduler may not be physically located at the base stationand may be located at any other suitable location (e.g., at the signalforwarding device or elsewhere in the radio access network to which thebase station belongs).

In a typical relay scenario, an anchor base station would only sendcontrol information applicable for the relay node. The relay node woulddecode the data and, depending on the UE device feedback regarding thecommunication link between the relay and the UE device, configure theappropriate control channel and re-allocate the data based on its ownscheduler. However, for the examples discussed herein, various methods,devices, and systems will be described in which an anchor base stationtransmits two sets of control information that are both associated withthe same data.

Since the signal forwarding device is central to the examples, thenomenclature used throughout the description centers on the signalforwarding device. More specifically, an “origination device” is adevice from which a signal is transmitted to the signal forwardingdevice, and the signal being received at the signal forwarding devicefrom an origination device is referred to as a “received signal.”Similarly, a “destination device” is a device to which the signalforwarding device transmits a signal, which is referred to herein as a“forwarded signal.” Moreover, although most of the following examplesrefer to a base station as the “origination device” and to a UE deviceas the “destination device,” the examples may be modified so that the UEdevice is the “origination device,” and the base station is the“destination device.”

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a wireless communicationsystem 100 including an origination device, a signal forwarding device,and a destination device. The origination device 110 and destinationdevice 114 may be any kind of wireless communication devices and may bestationary or portable. For the examples discussed herein, theorigination device 110 is a base station, and the destination device 114is a user equipment (UE) device such as a handset. However, the devices110, 114 may be different types of devices in other circumstances. Forexample, both devices may be UE devices. In some situations, theorigination device, the signal forwarding device, and the destinationdevice are all UE devices.

In the example of FIG. 1, origination device 110 provides downlinkwireless communication service to destination device 114. Thus,destination device 114 receives downlink signals (not shown) fromorigination device 110, either directly or via signal forwarding device138. The downlink signals are received at the destination device 114through antenna 124 and receiver 130. Destination device 114 furthercomprises a controller 128 and a transmitter 126. Origination device 110transmits the downlink signals to destination device 114 via antenna 116and transmitter 122. Origination device 110 further comprises acontroller 120 and a receiver 118.

Scheduler 132 is located at origination device 110 in the example shownin FIG. 1. However, the system 100 could be modified so that thescheduler 132 is located at any other suitable location. The schedulermay be an application running on equipment connected directly toorigination device 110 or connected through a backhaul or othercommunication link. Regardless of the location of scheduler 132, channelquality information (CQI) 134 regarding the various communication linkswithin the system 100 is provided to scheduler 132, which uses the CQI134 to schedule communication resources to be used by the variousentities within the system 100. For the example shown in FIG. 1, thescheduler 132 utilizes CQI pertaining to the communication link betweenthe origination device 110 and the destination device 114, CQIpertaining to the communication link between the origination device 110and the signal forwarding device 138, and CQI pertaining to thecommunication link between the signal forwarding device 138 and thedestination device 114. Based on the channel quality for at least one ofthese three communication links, the scheduler 132 schedulescommunication resources.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, origination device 110 transmits areceived data signal 136 (e.g. a downlink signal) to the signalforwarding device 138, which receives the received data signal 136 viaantenna 140 and receiver 142. The received data signal 136 comprises afirst set of data.

Origination device 110 also transmits at least one received controlsignal 137 to both the signal forwarding device 138 and the destinationdevice 114. In some cases, the at least one received control signal 137comprises one received control signal that comprises a first set ofcontrol information and a second set of control information. In otherexamples, the at least one received control signal 137 comprises aplurality of received control signals that collectively comprise a firstset of control information and a second set of control information. Forexample, the first set of control information could be sent in a firsttransmission, and the second set of control information could be sent ina second transmission.

Regardless of the number of signals/transmissions used to send the atleast one received control signal 137, the at least one received controlsignal 137 comprises a first set of control information and a second setof control information. The first set of control information isassociated with the first set of data and comprises instructionspertaining to the signal forwarding device 138 processing (e.g.,demodulating, decoding, etc.) the first set of data. The second set ofcontrol information is also associated with the first set of data andcomprises instructions pertaining to the destination device 114processing (e.g., demodulating, decoding, etc.) the first set of data.Thus, the first and second sets of control information are bothassociated with the same set of data. In some examples, the first set ofcontrol information comprises instructions on one or more of thefollowing: post-processing the first set of data at the signalforwarding device 138, decoding the first set of data at the signalforwarding device 138, and pre-processing the first set of data at thesignal forwarding device 138 to generate forwarded data that is to besent to the destination device 114.

The first set of control information may comprise one or more of thefollowing: carrier frequency, resource allocation, modulation/codingrate, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) related information, and originationand/or destination identifiers. The signal forwarding device 138 can useany of the included information from the first set of controlinformation to process the first set of data and/or generate forwardeddata to be sent to the destination device 114. Similarly, the second setof control information may comprise one or more of the following:carrier frequency, resource allocation, modulation/coding rate, multipleinput multiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) related information, and origination and/or destinationidentifiers. The destination device 114 can use any of the includedinformation from the second set of control information to process theforwarded data, which is based on the first set of data and istransmitted by the signal forwarding device 138.

In some examples, the at least one received control signal 137 istransmitted by origination device 110 as one or more beamformed downlinksignals. In such a scenario, transmitter 122 of the origination device110 is configured to: transmit the first set of control informationusing a first spatial vector, and transmit the second set of controlinformation using a second spatial vector. More specifically, the firstset of control information may be transmitted using spatial vector e₁,and the second set of control information may be transmitted usingspatial vector e₂, for example.

In other examples, the at least one received control signal 137 istransmitted by origination device 110 using different coding rates forthe first and second sets of control information. For example, theorigination device 110 may have an encoder (not shown) that isconfigured to: encode the first set of control information at a firstcoding rate, and encode the second set of control information at asecond coding rate. More specifically, the first set of controlinformation may be encoded at a ⅔ coding rate, and the second set ofcontrol information may be encoded at a ⅓ coding rate, for example.

In further examples, the at least one received control signal 137 istransmitted by origination device 110 using different modulationtechniques for the first and second sets of control information. Forexample, the transmitter 122 of origination device 110 may have amodulator (not shown) that is configured to: modulate the first set ofcontrol information according to a first modulation technique, andmodulate the second set of control information according to a secondmodulation technique. In this regard, any suitable modulation techniquemay be used to modulate the first and second sets of controlinformation, respectively.

The signal forwarding device 138 further comprises controller 144 andtransmitter 146, as well as other electronics, hardware, and code. Thesignal forwarding device 138 is any fixed, mobile, or portable equipmentthat performs the functions described herein. The various functions andoperations of the blocks described with reference to the signalforwarding device 138 may be implemented in any number of devices,circuits, or elements. Two or more of the functional blocks may beintegrated in a single device, and the functions described as performedin any single device may be implemented over several devices.

The controller 144 includes any combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware for executing the functions described herein as well asfacilitating the overall functionality of the signal forwarding device138. An example of a suitable controller 144 includes code running on amicroprocessor or processor arrangement connected to memory. Thetransmitter 146 includes electronics configured to transmit wirelesssignals to destination device 114. In some situations, the transmitter146 may include multiple transmitters. The receiver 142 includeselectronics configured to receive wireless signals from originationdevice 110. In some situations, the receiver 142 may include multiplereceivers. The receiver 142 and transmitter 146 receive and transmitsignals, respectively, through an antenna 140. The antenna 140 mayinclude separate transmit and receive antennas. In some circumstances,the antenna 140 may include multiple transmit and receive antennas.

The transmitter 146 and receiver 142 in the example of FIG. 1 performradio frequency (RF) processing including modulation and demodulation.The receiver 142, therefore, may include components such as low noiseamplifiers (LNAs) and filters. The transmitter 146 may include filtersand amplifiers. Other components may include isolators, matchingcircuits, and other RF components. These components in combination orcooperation with other components perform the signal forwardingfunctions. The required components may depend on the particular signalforwarding scheme that is employed. As discussed more fully below, forthe example shown in FIG. 1, the first set of data contained in thereceived data signal 136 is demodulated without decoding the demodulatedsignal, and the resulting symbols are modulated and transmitted as partof the forwarded signal 148. However, in other examples, the first setof data may also be decoded before generating the forwarded signal 148,which comprises forwarded data that is based, at least partially, on thefirst set of data.

The transmitter 146 includes a modulator (not shown), and the receiver142 includes a demodulator (not shown). The modulator modulates thesignals to be transmitted as part of the forwarded signal 148 and canapply any one of a plurality of modulation orders. As is known, themodulation order determines the number of different symbols that areused to represent the transmitted data for digital modulation. There isa trade-off between modulation order, required energy, and bit-errorrate (BER). As the modulation order is increased, the average energy perbit must also be increased to maintain the same BER. The demodulatordemodulates the received data signal 136 and the at least one receivedcontrol signal 137, both in accordance with one of a plurality ofmodulation orders. The modulation order for transmissions to thedestination device 114, however, is established by scheduler 132.

For the example shown in FIG. 1, the signal forwarding device 138 may bea fixed device or apparatus that is installed at a particular locationat the time of system deployment. Examples of such equipment includefixed base stations or fixed transceiver stations. In some situations,the signal forwarding device 138 may be mobile equipment that istemporarily installed at a particular location. Some examples of suchequipment include mobile transceiver stations that may include powergenerating equipment such as electric generators, solar panels, and/orbatteries. Larger and heavier versions of such equipment may betransported by trailer.

In still other situations, the signal forwarding device 138 may be aportable device that is not fixed to any particular location.Accordingly, the signal forwarding device 138 may be a portable userdevice such as a UE device in some circumstances. In someimplementations, the signal forwarding device 138 may be a base station,eNB, or access point that performs signal forwarding functions inaddition to serving UE devices. For example, a self-backhauled eNB,connected to an anchor eNB, may be configured to perform signalforwarding functions for some UE devices in addition to directly servingother UE devices utilizing the wireless backhaul to the originationdevice 110 (e.g., anchor eNB).

The signal forwarding device 138 may also apply one or more of thesignal forwarding schemes, discussed in detail below, when forwarding anincoming signal. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the signal forwardingdevice 138 applies a single signal forwarding scheme to the receiveddata signal 136. Alternatively, the signal forwarding device 138 maydynamically apply one or more signal forwarding schemes to received datasignal 136 or to a portion thereof. For example, signal forwardingdevice 138 may apply different signal forwarding schemes for differentportions of the received data signal 136.

The first set of control information may additionally includeinstructions regarding which signal forwarding scheme should be appliedby the signal forwarding device 138 when processing the received datasignal 136 and generating the forwarded signal 148. For example, thesignal forwarding scheme can be selected from one or more of: an amplifyand forward (AF) signal forwarding scheme, a decode and forward (DF)signal forwarding scheme, a partial decode and forward (PDF) signalforwarding scheme, and a direct origination device-to-destination devicesignal forwarding scheme.

The signal forwarding device 138 is capable of applying at least onetype of partial decode and forwarding (PDF) signal forwarding schemewhen forwarding an incoming signal. In some situations, the signalforwarding device 138 may be capable of applying more than one type ofsignal forwarding scheme. The signal forwarding device 138, for example,may be able to apply at least one of an amplify and forward (AF) scheme,decode and forward (DF) scheme, and a PDF scheme. As discussed herein, asignal forwarding scheme is based on the parameters, techniques, and/orlevel of processing applied to the incoming signal to generate theforwarded signal 148. Signal forwarding schemes can be categorized intothree basic groups.

For example, repeater signal forwarding schemes generally includeretransmission schemes where the incoming signal is received andretransmitted. At a minimum, the incoming signal (e.g., received datasignal 136) is amplified and retransmitted as the forwarded signal 148.In some repeater schemes, some processing is applied to the incomingsignal. For example, the incoming signal may also be filtered and/orfrequency shifted. Generally, however, the incoming signal is notdemodulated or decoded in a repeater signal forwarding scheme. Repeaterschemes are sometimes referred to as amplify and forward (AF) schemes.

Relay signal forwarding schemes include at least some decoding of theincoming signal to create the forwarded signal where the level ofdecoding can range from minimal to complete decoding of the incomingsignal. Complete decoding includes fully decoding the incoming signal toextract the payload and then applying the decoded data to generate thenew forwarded signal. Complete decoding schemes are sometimes referredto as decode and forward (DF) schemes. Several proposed techniquesinclude partial decoding of the incoming signal to transmit a forwardedsignal without complete decoding to extract the data from the signal.These schemes are sometimes referred to as partial decode and forward(PDF) schemes.

The AF signal forwarding scheme results in a relatively low-processingdelay since baseband signal processing is not performed. In most cases,this scheme has relatively poor performance because of the increase innoise during the signal amplification. AF schemes, however, minimizelatency because of the relatively low level of processing. A signalforwarded by a DF signal forwarding scheme, however, has much lowernoise due to baseband processing performed to decode the signal,resulting in noise cancellation. The lower noise benefit comes with thecost of increased processing delay, resulting in a relatively highlatency. Often, PDF signal forwarding schemes are considered to have anappropriate tradeoff between signal quality and latency relative to DFand AF schemes. For the example shown in FIG. 1, the first set of datacontained in the received data signal 136 is demodulated withoutdecoding the demodulated signal, and the resulting symbols are modulatedand transmitted as part of the forwarded signal 148. Since the first setof data is not completely decoded, however, processing delays arereduced significantly compared to DF schemes. However, in otherexamples, the first set of data may also be decoded before generatingthe forwarded signal 148, which comprises forwarded data that is based,at least partially, on the first set of data.

The PDF scheme applied by the signal forwarding device 138 in theexemplary embodiments includes accumulating fewer received symbols toform a lower-order modulation symbol before retransmission. Thisscenario occurs because a typical link between the signal forwardingdevice 138 and the destination device 114 has a relatively lowersignal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to the link between the originationdevice 110 and the signal forwarding device 138. In some situations, forexample, the origination device-to-signal forwarding device (OD-SFD)channel between the origination device 110 and the signal forwardingdevice 138 is typically static because both devices are fixed, whereasthe signal forwarding device-to-destination device (SFD-DD) channelbetween the signal forwarding device 138 and the destination device 114is generally dynamic because the destination device 114 is mobile.

Regardless of which signal forwarding scheme is applied to the receiveddata signal 136, origination device 110 transmits the at least onereceived control signal 137 to both the signal forwarding device 138 andthe destination device 114. The at least one received control signal 137is transmitted over a dual-control channel, containing both the firstand second sets of control information, such that the at least onereceived control signal 137 can be delivered using layered modulation,Frequency Division Multiplexing, Code Division Multiplexing, TimeDivision Multiplexing, or Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA). If SDMAis used, a first beamformed downlink signal is directed towards thesignal forwarding device 138, and a second beamformed downlink signal isdirected towards the destination device 114.

Transmission of the at least one received control signal 137 over adual-control channel is useful in scenarios in which (1) the controlplane delivery of the origination device 110 can easily reach both thesignal forwarding device 138 and the destination device 114 (e.g., dueto a lower modulation order), and (2) the data plane delivery of theorigination device 110 cannot directly reach the destination device 114.Moreover, if the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is used forthe delivery of the first and second sets of control information, thesearch space associated with transmitting the control information to thesignal forwarding device 138 can be different from the search spaceassociated with transmitting the control information to the destinationdevice 114. If this is the case, the two different PDCCH search spacesare both mapped to the same data resource in the Physical DownlinkShared Channel (PDSCH).

As described above, signal forwarding device 138 processes the first setof data contained in the received data signal 136 in accordance with thefirst set of control information. The signal forwarding device 138 has acontroller 144 that is configured to generate a forwarded signal 148. Ingenerating the forwarded signal 148, the signal forwarding device 138may apply any pre-processing instructions, which were included in thefirst set of control information, to the first set of data to generateforwarded data. The forwarded signal 148 comprises the forwarded data,based at least partially on the first set of data.

The signal forwarding device 138 transmits the forwarded signal 148 viatransmitter 146 and antenna 140 to the destination device 114. In thismanner, the signal forwarding device 138 transmits the first set of datato the destination device 114. For the examples discussed herein, theforwarded signal 148 is transmitted within a single frequency band ofthe SFD-DD channel. The incoming received data signal 136 is transmittedwithin an origination device-to-signal forwarding device channel (OD-SFDchannel), which also includes a single frequency band. However, anycombination of frequency bands and frequency sub-bands may be used forthe OD-SFD channel and the SFD-DD channel.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the destination device 114 is aware ofthe expected time delay between reception of the at least one receivedcontrol signal 137 at the destination device 114 and reception of theforwarded signal 148 at the destination device 114. For example, theexpected time delay could be equal to the sum of the propagation delaybetween the origination device 110 and the signal forwarding device 138,the processing delay at the signal forwarding device 138, and thepropagation delay between the signal forwarding device 138 and thedestination device 114. Alternatively, the expected time delay could befixed (e.g., could be a multiple of the subframe). For example, theexpected time delay could be 1 subframe when it is known that thedestination device 114 will receive the at least one received controlsignal 137 1 subframe in advance of receiving the forwarded signal 148.Regardless of the manner used to determine the expected time delay, theexpected time delay may be provided to the destination device 114 or maybe determined by a controller 128 of the destination device 114.

In yet other examples, an association sequence number or an n-bitDownlink Control Information (DCI) indicator may be used to associate aparticular at least one received control signal 137 with a particularforwarded signal 148. More specifically, the origination device 110provides the association sequence number or n-bit DCI indicator, whichhas been assigned to a particular received control signal 137, to thesignal forwarding device 138 and to the destination device 114. Thesignal forwarding device 138 includes the assigned association sequencenumber or n-bit DCI indicator in the forwarded signal 148. Thus, thedestination device 114 can determine that a particular received controlsignal 137 and a particular forwarded signal 148 correspond to eachother if the received control signal 137 and the forwarded signal 148have been assigned the same association sequence number or n-bit DCIindicator.

In some examples, upon receiving the forwarded signal 148, thecontroller 128 of the destination device 114 is configured to measurethe forwarded signal 148 to obtain channel measurements associated witha signal forwarding device-to-destination device (SFD-DD) channelbetween the signal forwarding device 138 and the destination device 114.After measuring the forwarded signal 148, the transmitter 126 ofdestination device 114 transmits the SFD-DD channel measurements to theorigination device 110. The SFD-DD channel measurements can betransmitted directly to origination device 110. Alternatively, theSFD-DD channel measurements can be initially transmitted to signalforwarding device 138, and signal forwarding device 138 can subsequentlytransmit the SFD-DD channel measurements to origination device 110.

In some examples, destination device 114 can also transmit the SFD-DDchannel measurements to origination device 110, either directly orindirectly through signal forwarding device 138, as part of a feedbacksignal. Alternatively, the SFD-DD channel measurements can betransmitted separately from the feedback signal. For example, thefeedback signal can include a downlink channel feedback reportcomprising downlink channel measurements related to one or more downlinksignals received by the destination device 114. For example, thedownlink channel feedback report may contain downlink channelmeasurements for downlink signals received from the origination device110 and/or downlink channel measurements for one or more downlinksignals received from one or more base stations other than originationdevice 110. The downlink channel feedback report can additionallyinclude the location of the resources (e.g., time slots, subcarriers,reference signal, etc.) on which the downlink channel measurements weremade.

The downlink channel feedback report may also identify a carrier onwhich the downlink channel measurements were made, a cell identifierassociated with origination device 110 that transmitted the downlinksignals, and/or a spatial vector associated with a beamformed downlinksignal. In some examples, the downlink channel feedback report mayidentify a cell identifier associated with a base station, other thanorigination device 110, that transmitted the downlink signal. Thisscenario might occur when the downlink signal is received from a basestation other than origination device 110, but the destination device114 needs to submit the downlink channel feedback report to thescheduler 132 located at the origination device 110.

In yet another scenario, destination device 114 can receive downlinksignals from a first device (e.g., origination device 110), as theprimary carrier of the downlink signals, and can also receive downlinksignals from a second device (e.g., signal forwarding device 138 or abase station other than origination device 110), as the secondarycarrier of the downlink signals. In such a scenario, the downlinkchannel feedback report may (1) identify the primary carrier and/or thesecondary carrier on which the downlink channel measurements were made,(2) include a cell identifier associated with the first device thattransmitted the primary carrier and/or a cell identifier associated withthe second device that transmitted the secondary carrier, and/or (3)include a spatial vector associated with each of one or more beamformeddownlink signals, respectively.

Alternatively, the feedback signal can include an acknowledgmentresponse, which can be either a positive acknowledgment response (ACK)or a negative acknowledgment response (NACK). The ACK message indicatesthat a downlink signal was successfully received by the destinationdevice 114. The NACK message indicates that the downlink signal was notsuccessfully received by the destination device 114. In some situations,the ACK/NACK message is a message that is forwarded on to theorigination device 110 by the signal forwarding device 138. In othersituations, it is a message intended for the signal forwarding device138. In still other situations, the ACK message can be an indication toboth the signal forwarding device 138 and the origination device 110. Inscenarios in which the feedback signal includes an acknowledgmentresponse, the feedback signal may additionally identify a carrier onwhich the downlink signal was received, a cell identifier associatedwith origination device 110 that transmitted the downlink signal, a cellidentifier associated with a base station, other than origination device110, that transmitted the downlink signal, and/or a spatial vectorassociated with a beamformed downlink signal.

Regardless of the contents of the feedback signal, the SFD-DD channelmeasurements can be transmitted along with, or separate from, thefeedback signal to the origination device 110, either directly orthrough signal forwarding device 138. Upon receipt of the SFD-DD channelmeasurements, the controller 120 of the origination device 110 isconfigured to modify the received data signal 136 and/or the at leastone received control signal 137, based at least partially on the SFD-DDchannel measurements. For example, the at least one received controlsignal 137 may be modified by changing the first set of controlinformation, the second set of control information, or both. Similarly,the controller 120 of the origination device 110 can be furtherconfigured to select, based at least partially upon the SFD-DD channelmeasurements, a signal forwarding scheme from one of the signalforwarding schemes discussed above.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an example of a method 200 of utilizing thewireless communication system of FIG. 1 to provide control informationto a signal forwarding device and to a destination device. Morespecifically, the method of FIG. 2 describes how to provide (1) a firstset of data to a destination device via a signal forwarding device, and(2) a first set of control information and a second set of controlinformation, both associated with the first set of data, to the signalforwarding device and the destination device. The method begins, at step202, with receiving at least one received data signal 136 at signalforwarding device 138. The at least one received data signal 136comprises a first set of data.

At step 204, at least one received control signal 137 is received at thesignal forwarding device 138 and the destination device 114. Asdescribed above, the at least one received control signal 137 maycomprise only a single received control signal or a plurality ofreceived control signals. The at least one received control signal 137comprises a first set of control information and a second set of controlinformation, both of which are associated with the first set of data.The first set of control information is associated with the first set ofdata and comprises instructions pertaining to the signal forwardingdevice 138 processing the first set of data. The first set of controlinformation may also comprise instructions on at least one of:post-processing the first set of data, decoding the first set of data,and pre-processing the first set of data to generate the forwarded data.The second set of control information is associated with the first setof data and comprises instructions pertaining to a destination device114 processing the first set of data.

Upon receipt of the received data signal 136, the signal forwardingdevice 138 generates a forwarded signal 148 in accordance with the firstset of control information. The forwarded signal 148 comprises forwardeddata, based at least partially on the first set of data. At step 206,the forwarded signal 148 is transmitted to destination device 114. Uponreceiving the forwarded signal 148, the destination device 114 processesthe forwarded signal 148 in accordance with the second set of controlinformation, which was previously transmitted to the destination device114 as part of the at least one received control signal 137.

At step 208, an expected time delay is provided to the destinationdevice 114. The expected time delay is a delay between reception of theat least one received control signal 137 at the destination device 114and reception of the forwarded signal 148 at the destination device 114.The expected time delay can be provided to the destination device 114 ordetermined by the destination device 114. Moreover, the expected timedelay can be fixed or can be determined based on an expected/measuredsum of the propagation delay between the origination device 110 and thesignal forwarding device 138, the processing delay at the signalforwarding device 138, and the propagation delay between the signalforwarding device 138 and the destination device 114.

Although not shown explicitly in FIG. 2, the method 200 may also includethe destination device 114 measuring the forwarded signal 148 to obtainchannel measurements for the signal forwarding device-to-destinationdevice (SFD-DD) channel. Subsequently, the destination device 114transmits the SFD-DD channel measurements, directly or indirectlythrough signal forwarding device 138, to the origination device 110 thattransmitted the received data signal 136. As mentioned above, thedestination device 114 can also transmit the SFD-DD channel measurementsto origination device 110 as part of a feedback/acknowledgment signal.

In other examples, the method 200 may additionally include originationdevice 110 modifying the received data signal 136 and/or the at leastone received control signal 137, based on the SFD-DD channelmeasurements received from the destination device 114. Originationdevice 110 can also select a signal forwarding scheme based at leastpartially on the SFD-DD channel measurements, as discussed above.

Clearly, other embodiments and modifications of this invention willoccur readily to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of theseteachings. The above description is illustrative and not restrictive.This invention is to be limited only by the following claims, whichinclude all such embodiments and modifications when viewed inconjunction with the above specification and accompanying drawings. Thescope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not withreference to the above description, but instead should be determinedwith reference to the appended claims along with their full scope ofequivalents.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, at a signalforwarding device, at least one received data signal comprising a firstset of data; receiving, at the signal forwarding device and at adestination device, at least one received control signal comprising afirst set of control information and a second set of controlinformation, the first set of control information associated with thefirst set of data and comprising instructions pertaining to the signalforwarding device processing the first set of data, the second set ofcontrol information associated with the first set of data and comprisinginstructions pertaining to the destination device processing the firstset of data; and transmitting, from the signal forwarding device, aforwarded signal to the destination device, the forwarded signalcomprising forwarded data, based at least partially on the first set ofdata.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one receivedcontrol signal comprises one received control signal that comprises thefirst set of control information and the second set of controlinformation.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one receivedcontrol signal comprises a plurality of received control signals, theplurality of received control signals collectively comprising the firstset of control information and the second set of control information. 4.The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, to the destinationdevice, an expected time delay between reception of the at least onereceived control signal at the destination device and reception of theforwarded signal at the destination device.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the first set of control information is transmitted using afirst spatial vector, and the second set of control information istransmitted using a second spatial vector.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the first set of control information is encoded at a firstcoding rate, and the second set of control information is encoded at asecond coding rate.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set ofcontrol information is modulated according to a first modulationtechnique, and the second set of control information is modulatedaccording to a second modulation technique.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the first set of control information comprises at least one ofthe following: carrier frequency, resource allocation, modulation/codingrate, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) related information, and originationand/or destination identifiers.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thesecond set of control information comprises at least one of thefollowing: carrier frequency, resource allocation, modulation/codingrate, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) related information, and originationand/or destination identifiers.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: assigning at least one of: an association sequence numberand an n-bit Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicator to identifywhich particular at least one received control signal corresponds towhich particular forwarded signal.
 11. A system comprising: anorigination device comprising a transmitter configured to transmit atleast one received data signal comprising a first set of data; and asignal forwarding device comprising: a receiver configured to receivethe at least one received data signal, and a transmitter configured totransmit a forwarded signal to a destination device, the forwardedsignal comprising forwarded data, based at least partially on the firstset of data, the transmitter of the origination device furtherconfigured to transmit, to the signal forwarding device and to thedestination device, at least one received control signal comprising afirst set of control information and a second set of controlinformation, the first set of control information associated with thefirst set of data and comprising instructions pertaining to the signalforwarding device processing the first set of data, the second set ofcontrol information associated with the first set of data and comprisinginstructions pertaining to the destination device processing the firstset of data.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least onereceived control signal comprises one received control signal thatcomprises the first set of control information and the second set ofcontrol information.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the at leastone received control signal comprises a plurality of received controlsignals, the plurality of received control signals collectivelycomprising the first set of control information and the second set ofcontrol information.
 14. The system of claim 11, where the destinationdevice further comprises a controller configured to determine anexpected time delay between reception of the at least one receivedcontrol signal at the destination device and reception of the forwardedsignal at the destination device.
 15. The system of claim 11, whereinthe first set of control information is transmitted using a firstspatial vector, and the second set of control information is transmittedusing a second spatial vector.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thefirst set of control information is encoded at a first coding rate, andthe second set of control information is encoded at a second codingrate.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the first set of controlinformation is modulated according to a first modulation technique, andthe second set of control information is modulated according to a secondmodulation technique.
 18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first setof control information comprises at least one of the following: carrierfrequency, resource allocation, modulation/coding rate, multiple inputmultiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) related information, and origination and/or destinationidentifiers.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the second set ofcontrol information comprises at least one of the following: carrierfrequency, resource allocation, modulation/coding rate, multiple inputmultiple output (MIMO) scheme details, hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) related information, and origination and/or destinationidentifiers.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the origination devicefurther comprises a controller configured to assign at least one of: anassociation sequence number and an n-bit Downlink Control Information(DCI) indicator to a particular at least one received control signal,the transmitter of the origination device further configured to transmitthe assigned at least one of: an association sequence number and ann-bit DCI indicator to the signal forwarding device and to thedestination device, the transmitter of the signal forwarding devicefurther configured to include the assigned at least one of: anassociation sequence number and an n-bit DCI indicator in the forwardedsignal.